ACUPUNCTURE’S POPULARITY EXTENDING TO THE PET WORLD

Thousands of veterinarians are trained to administer it

Acupuncture came to this country after Washington and Beijing opened relations during the Nixon administration, said Vikki Weber, executive director of the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society (IVAS) in Fort Collins, Colo.

“You didn’t even hear about acupuncture in America until the 1970s, let alone acupuncture for animals,” Weber said. “Then some Chinese acupuncturists came to UCLA’s pain management center, where they trained physicians to use acupuncture in labs, using dogs. The American physicians realized that the dogs were actually getting results, and they contacted veterinarians.”

Since 1974, IVAS has trained 6,000 veterinarians worldwide in animal acupuncture, Weber said. The society’s training has slowly grown more popular over the years, but took off in the past decade as Americans became more interested in acupuncture for their own ailments. The association does not track the number of animals being treated.

Animal acupuncturist Tom Ingegno in Baltimore even treated Gretchen, an aging giraffe at the Maryland Zoo, for chronic arthritis. To ease the pain, Ingegno inserted needles into Gretchen’s legs, lower back and neck.

“You would see her relax and switch from a flight-or-fight-mode into a rest-and-digest mode and after a treatment she would eat and be more mobile,” he said.

Veterinarian Toni Connell of the Independent Hill Veterinary Clinic in Manassas, Va., has been a veterinarian since 1979. In 2004, she invested the 160 hours needed in Virginia to earn a license in veterinary acupuncture.

“It’s been very helpful for treating cats with chronic upper respiratory diseases, and we just don’t have anything in traditional medicine that works for them,” she said.

Pet acupuncture, of course, attracts its share of skeptics.

IVAS’s Weber thinks that animals should be treated only by veterinarians who are trained in acupuncture.

“Human acupuncturists are trained to treat humans,” Weber said. “A vet is much more qualified to treat an animal and has much more training.”

And of course, some critics say acupuncture is an unproven treatment, for both pets and humans.

The American Medical Association takes no specific position on acupuncture, but says that “there is little evidence to confirm the safety or efficacy of most alternative therapies.” It says more “stringently controlled research should be done” to determine whether it is useful.

But Schoell and others who have used the treatment for their pets say they are convinced.

On a recent Wednesday morning, McVey walked Cashew and Schoell into her backyard garden. Cashew chased a bug through the tulips as the wind chimes jingled. “It helps you relax, being outside, right?” McVey said.

They walked Cashew down into McVey’s salmon-colored basement, where she examined his coat and took his pulse. This was Cashew’s third session; the dog is also seeing a trainer, and Schoell believes the combination has helped calm his fears.

Then McVey began. As the dog rested on her carpet, she gently stuck thin, light needles about the diameter of a whisker into points on his chest and back. Cashew didn’t seem bothered by the needles at all — he started to look drowsy, as if he was about to segue into a nap.

“You can see his eyes soften and his ears lower down, whereas before, he was holding everything at attention like he had his armor on,” said McVey.

The entire process lasted about 30 minutes. Then back to the garden. Cashew seemed as relaxed as a person would be after a massage. McVey bent down to pet his belly.